‘A yorkshire pudding like a dishcloth’: how did British pub food get so grim?
For many years, UK food had a terrible reputation. Then, in the 1990s, gastropubs brought new flavours, energy and ideas. When and why did it all start to go downhill again?
I t was supposed to be a special occasion: an extended family get-together for Sunday lunch at a country pub. The setting was promising: a traditional establishment recently redecorated; outside terrace by the river; plenty of customers. The menu was also promising: a giant sheet of paper like a medieval charter, with glowing descriptions of how they aged their beef and sourced their produce locally.
The food, though, was awful. The starters were assorted deep-fried pellets of unidentifiable organic matter; the meat was cold and colourless, the gravy watery, the roast potatoes soggy and the yorkshire pudding chewy as a dishcloth. It was very difficult to believe all of this had been freshly prepared in the kitchen that day. It felt more like reheated leftovers – for £30 a head.
You may, like me, have had this experience – and the lower-budget equivalent, the pub menu that consists of 700 variations of pie or burger, all of which arrive at the table via the freezer and the microwave, molten hot and almost glowing. With chips.
